The topic of this article-based dissertation is children’s invented writing. The dissertation is written within the disciplines of early literacy, education and special needs research. The purpose was to investigate how children’s invented writing in preschool would influence their early literacy development in preschool and first grade within a Norwegian context.
The dissertation builds upon three empirical studies. In the first study, the concurrent relations between parental education, home literacy environment, underpinning language-and literacy skills and invented writing skills in five-year-olds were explored (N = 111). The second focused on an invented writing intervention in preschool with follow-up in first grade. The third study investigated the at-risk signs of low response to the intervention.
The dissertation made use of quantitative methods (structural equation modelling and multivariate analysis of variance) and data: A test-battery was used to measure the individual child’s language and literacy skills in preschool and school, in addition to a questionnaire given to the parents.
The main findings in the dissertation were that there were large differences between the children in invented writing skills, which seemed to be related to their early literacy skills and the home literacy environment. Moreover, the dissertation showed that an invented writing intervention in preschool had positive impact on children’s reading and writing skills, and presumably made the formal literacy learning in first grade easier. Finally, the dissertation showed how preschool teachers can identify, monitor, and support children at risk of low response to an invented writing intervention in preschool. The studies contribute to new insights about invented writing in an area which has been little researched before.